


In the Garden

by xanemarths



Series: 200 Years of (Holy) War [2]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Genre: F/M, Gardens & Gardening, Herbalism, Pre-Relationship, though they do start dating at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 12:13:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16576256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xanemarths/pseuds/xanemarths
Summary: In an attempt to court the Duchess of Jungby, Jamke presents her with the part of Verdane Castle he's proudest of: the gardens. Edain isn't quite sure what to do with this....No, really. She was never trained in plant medicine. What does she do with this.





	In the Garden

**Author's Note:**

> My nano project for this year was working on my fe4 rewrite/novelization "200 Years of (Holy) War", and along the way I accidentally came up with an entire character for Jamke's mother, realized that I probably wasn't going to find a place to talk about her in the full fic, and decided to expand on her a little bit more here. As well as add setup to Jamke/Edain. because you know.
> 
> I wrote this in maybe an hour or two and it's almost the entire wordcount to complete a day of nano. Oops.

The peace talks with Verdane have only been going on for a week or so now, and it’s only increasingly argumentative letters to and from Belhalla about how much control over the country Granvalle should have that keep it from closing any sooner. Jamke and Sigurd had already come to their agreement long before Emperor Azmur had any say in it; with the bandits led by Munnir and Kinbois eradicated, Verdane was to be restored to its rightful rulers. The more recent letters from Granvalle had only just started to concede the point, with one of the latest suggesting that Sigurd preside over Castle Evans to make sure there were no further “barbarian” invasions; Edain was not yet certain what Sigurd’s response to that idea was.

Nor did she plan on finding out just yet. For now, she’s content to wander the halls of Verdane castle, admiring the great pillars of polished wood, and the colorful mosaics of wildlife and beings that are, according to Dew and Jamke, various Verdanese gods. She admires these from a distance; much as she’d like to run her fingers and trace their intricate tiling, as a holy woman and a Granvallean, she fears that doing so would be in some way blasphemous. So instead she stares, trying to commit these images to memory, so that she can think of them later, when alone in the walls of her old home-

“Miss Edain!”

The sound of someone calling her name rouses her from her thoughts, and she turns in the direction of Jamke (really, there was no one else who called her miss), whose approaching footsteps she hadn’t even registered. He smiles at her, hands clasping behind his back, rocking on the balls of his feet and looking strangely bashful. “There’s a place in this castle I’d like to show you,” he says, and Edain’s heart flutters a bit. Jamke had shown her many places in the castle before, including the very room she’s in now - but never before had he stated his offer like this, and never had he looked quite so nervous about it, either!”

“Well then,” she says, reaching out for his arm, which he graciously offers her, “let’s go then, shall we, Prince Jamke?”

He beams brightly at her, and leads her through the castle. Edain wonders the whole way where exactly they’re going, and how special and important it is to Jamke to make him so flustered about bringing it up-

He pauses in front of a door, and after glancing at her to make sure she’s ready and paying attention, he swings it open to reveal the largest and most luscious garden Edain has ever seen.

“Oh!” she gasps, hands flying to her mouth; she glances at Jamke for permission, and when he nods she enters the garden, carefully observing every plant and flower. There’s things she’s never seen before, flowers she knows but has never heard the name of, herbs that she knows the names of but not which name belongs to what, and a few very specific plants she recognizes from various teas. She goes about them, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at what a marvelous collection this is, and Jamke’s chest puffs out with pride as he watches. After she’s certain she’s at least taken a glance at everything the garden has to offer, Edain turns from where she’d knelt in the dirt to more closely examine some herbs growing in a tray on a table and back to Jamke. “These are all so lovely,” she tells him with a soft exhale, and Jamke looks about ready to burst with pride. “Is there a particular purpose for them all, like food? Or are they just here to look pretty?”

The pride on Jamke’s face falls away, replaced by a look of confused dismay, and Edain wonders if she’s said something wrong. “Do you not know how to use them?”

“Use them?” Edain echoes, confused - and then it dawns on her suddenly. “Oh - oh, no, no! I’m afraid you give me rather too much credit,” she says with a laugh. “I’m not a _true_ healer, really - I’m merely a battle medic, trained only in the use of staves and bandages. I might be able to pick out an ingredient for a salve, but my training was never really focused on plant remedies.”

“Oh,” says Jamke, and for a moment he looks almost crestfallen - but then the look disappears, and he crosses over to kneel next to her, tracing his fingertips over the leaves of the tray herbs with a delicate precision. “...Would you like me to teach you, then?”

Edain’s heart practically skips a beat; Jamke is so close to her, close enough to touch, and his offer to teach her means they’ll continue to be close, perhaps for a long time. Perhaps she can arrange to stay in Verdane for a while longer, send Midir back to Jungby and stay with the prince for a while longer- “I’d love that,” she breathes. “So, you’re versed in plant medicine, then?”

Jamke doesn’t answer immediately, staring intensely down at the herb tray and frowning, checking over every leaf as though searching for imperfections. “Yes,” he says, finally. “I learned from my mother.”

 _His mother_. Suddenly, many things make sense to Edain; the return stave he just so happened to have, the warp stave Dew had stolen from the castle, the reason there was such a large and well-tended castle garden in the first place. “Oh - is that - is she the one who had-”

He nods. “Yes, she was the one who owned the staves.” He smirks, almost grimly amused. “Including the one Dew stole and gave to you, yes.”

“That’s - I’m so - I’ll return it to you tonight, I promise, and - oh, dear, I gave the return stave to Ethlyn, I had no _idea,_ I’m so sorry-”

Jamke waves his hand, quieting her. “It’s all right. If I had wanted it back, I would have asked you by now. As for the return stave, it was a gift! To do whatever you pleased with it! If using it was not in your style, or you felt it was better suited for the hands of someone else, then who am I to stop you from giving it away? Besides, they’re not the only things of my mother’s I have left,” he says, patting at his bandana, and then pointing to where he usually kept his bow and quiver. “My mother was not merely a healer - like Ethlyn, she was skilled in both the art of hurting and the art of healing.”

“Which is why you trusted me with Dew’s sword,” Edain murmurs, another piece clicking into place. “I - oh, Jamke… it still wasn’t right of me to give a gift like that away-”

“Edain,” Jamke says, very seriously, turning towards her; Edain turns towards him as well, lets him take her hands in his. In the end, she’s not certain who closes the distance between them; only that one moment they were not kissing and the next moment they are. It’s a wholly chaste kiss, too, and Jamke’s lips are soft and gentle - so she regrets it when they both draw back, in almost perfect unison.

“We should see each other more, first,” she tells him once they do, placing her palms on his chest; he nods quickly. “One of my friends is already planning to get married because of love at first sight. I will not be the second one in a week.”

“Of course,” says Jamke, with a grave nod of understanding. “We can take this as slow as we need. We have all the time in the world, do we not?”

Edain smiles at him, and then leans forward to rest her forehead against his. “Yes,” she agrees. “And we can start with those lessons on plant medicine.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote and posted this at like, three am, without any beta-ing or sensitivity check of any kind, so like. If Stuff's Up, I apologize,


End file.
